American Anthropologist 1985
Arno, Andrew. Structural Communication and Control Communication: An Interaction’s Perspective on Legal and Customary Procedures for Conflict Management. American Anthropologist March, 1985 Vol. 87(1): 40-55.
In this article, the author believes that the analysis of legal and customary procedures for conflict management offer a glimpse into the dynamics of the social conflict situation. In turn, this will allow legal anthropology to explore the appropriateness of specific conflict control strategies and specific social settings. The author suggests that control communication replicates its own patterns of form and substance in the specific social processes to which it is applied.
Broadly defined messages, of “structural” significance to actors, fall under the rubric of structural communication. Social actors read, interpret, and posit their interactions according to relative structural positions. Control communication is prevalent in private conversations as well as in public discussion, evaluation, and gossip with regard to social events of different types.
Control communication and structural communication continuously interact with one another. Using legal means to cause change in a relationship, such as a marriage, would be one example. Interaction of control communication and structural communication is not only seen at the individual level; it can be observed at the macro level. The civil rights movement, reparations movements, and the relations between capital and labor management are all examples at the macro level.
In conclusion, the author states that the underlying processual linkage among such diverse institutions as law courts, intrafamily conflict management, and collective bargaining relations resides in the common pattern of interaction between structural and control communication.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
MICHAEL BOBICK Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Arno, Andrew. Structural Communication and Control Communication: An Interactionist Perspective on Legal and Customary Procedures for Conflict Management. American Anthropologist 1985 Vol.87:40-55
Conflict control depends on the interaction between structural communication and control communication. It deals mainly with political anthropology, to reach a better understanding of inequity of human social order. Legal anthropology shows how inequality is maintained and continued though generations. The study of communication patterns to predict social behavior applies to certain conditions in which you are likely to respond in a certain manner varying within cultures.
There are useful benefits in the study of legal theory for one; legal exclusivism can work to your favor if you can manipulate the system to provide explanations that meet their system judgment. In order to judge social behavior you must first have cultural regulations, a cultural norm in which they can determine what is acceptable and what is not.
Power defines the limits. Communication theory portrays a social organization, it is also a manner of regulation in terms of relaying messages, hence “control communication”. Arno argues that control communication blames crime on the society and not on the individual. Control communication describes a relationship where both parties are aware of the regulations and abide by them in fear of consequences. Occasionally they create their own interpretation of the regulation and deviate. For example in the case of the defendant and the plaintiff, the lawyer will try to win his trial by using the same regulations to prove innocence. Structural communication, is a power theory it suggests direct social experience, it is individualized. Everybody is restricted to a specific norm and sanctions are used to enforce the laws. Bateson used a “double blind” theory to convey his Interactionist perspective that linked family communication patterns.
We need both Structural and control communication of resovling conflict because they are involved in our everyday to manage behavior, to bargain and in the media.
CLARITY: 2
MELISSA MOKEDANZ York University (Naomi Adelson)
Atran, Scott. The Nature of Folk-Botanical Life Forms. American Anthropologist June, 1985 Vol. 87(2): 298-315.
In this article, the author primarily is concerned with challenging various empiricist, inductivist presuppositions with regard to lay taxonomy and folk-botanical life forms in particular. Clarification of the historical and conceptual relationship between folk and scientific taxonomy is also a stated goal of the author.
Folk-botanical life forms appear to represent a holistic view of the local flora (and its subsequent relationship with the local fauna) that is compatible with humankind’s existence. Life form divisions seem to be made on the basis of their place within the hierarchy of human ecology and their pertinence to everyday human life.
Dealing with a localized context, folk-botanical life forms are not intended to be expanded to a larger geographical space of evolutionary schema. They are not phylogenetically “natural,” nor are they more “artificial” or “special purpose” than other higher order scientific taxa. Folk-botanical life forms are anthropocentrically biased and help to partition the natural world in ways that are compatible with the human mind. Employment of these terms is not limited to the particular cultures in question; scientists as well as non-specialists use them.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
MICHAEL BOBICK Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Bastien, Joseph W. Qollahuaya-Andean Body Concepts: A Topographical-Hydraulic Model of Physiology. American Anthropologist September, 1985 Vol.87 (3): 595-611.
The author proposes a topographical-hydraulic model to explain Qollahuaya ethnophysiology. He draws on ethnographic data to show that the Qollahuaya associate the human body with the landscape of a mountain and a hydraulic system with centrifugal and centripetal flows to the edges and the center of the mountain. Qollahuayas base their conception of the human body on their physical surroundings, specifically the mountain—ayllu. They divide the ayllu into three ecological zones inhabited by three communities. Bastien gathers his ethnographic data from Ayllu Kaata where the Ni okorin, Kaata, and Apacheta live and perform different roles in the exchange of produce, marriage, and ritual kinship. The ayllu is integral with different geographical features representing different body parts. On the mountain, a cyclical system of disintegration transforms life and death continually. The Qollahuaya extend the cyclical nature of natural processes onto human physiological processes.
While similar to Greek humoral pathology—both models are based on the dichotomies of hot/cold and wet/dry—Qolloahuaya health does not depend on striking a balance among these qualities, but on how heat, cold, moisture, and dryness affect the cyclical hydraulic system of fluids—water, air, blood, and fat—in the human body. This model explains the attribution of various diseases to specific activities resulting in fluids dispersing from the body to the land, loss of blood or fat, too much wind, improper circulation or blockage, accumulation of toxic fluids, upsetting distillation processes, and improper relationships with the land, all of which are unfavorable conditions.
Bastien uses ritual, pathological, and ethnopharmacological data to support the topographical-hydraulic model for human physiology. He shows how this model has grown out of historical patterns as well as the relationship of Andeans to the land. He presents ethnographic information gathered from Qollahuaya herbalists, correlating various medicinal plants with their effects on different bodily fluids and processes. He also provides a historical framework for anatomical metaphors associating landforms with body parts and shapes of animals dating back to the Inca, and currently among Quechua speakers. In the Quechua language, simple and compound lexemes extend geographical meanings to body parts and vice versa, reflecting the interrelation of geographic and body concepts.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
MARGARET BERGER Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Bastien, Joseph W. 1985. Qollahuaya-Andean Body Concepts: A Topographical-Hydraulic Model of Physiology. American Anthropologist.1989 Vol. 87 (3): 595-611.
Bastien’s (1985) article reflects on the need to incorporate concepts of self into modern medical practices if those concepts differ from those of the medical practitioner and/or the society at large. Using Bolivian peasants as an example in the opening paragraph Bastien (1985: 595) shows how medical care facilities have increased while the number of patients have not increased significantly over the years. Bastien’s research is focused on gathering data that would facilitate the interactions between peasants whose beliefs about the body and its care differ from those of the mainstream. In the article Bastien (1985) describes his research among the Qollahuaya of the Bolivian Andes. Bastien’s (1985) goal is to draw a picture of what the Qollahuaya believe about their bodies and how they confront medical issues.
According to Bastien (1985), the Qollahuaya have a complex system of medical practices that incorporate both body and spirit; the description of what the Qollahuaya believe about their body’s working is too lengthy and complex to describe in such a short summary. However, an attempt will be made to present Bastien main objectives. The Qollahuaya, according to Bastien (1985:601), have what he describes as a “topographical-hydraulic model of physiology.” Bastien (1985: 601) further forwards that the Qollahuaya believe that the earth provides cures through special plants that are gifts from their Gods. It is easy for a westerner to see how such beliefs would conflict with modern medical practices and/or practitioners. Bastien’s main objective in collecting his data on the Qollahuaya is to provide this knowledge to modern medical practitioners so that they can devise methods of treatment that the Qollahuaya and other natives can accept.
Armando Reyes California State University, Hayward. (Peter Claus).
Baines, John. Color Terminology and Color Classification: Ancient Egyptian Color Terminology and Polychromy. American Anthropologist June, 1985 Vol. 87(1): 282-293.
John Baines’s article attempts to evaluate the efficacy of the Berlin and Kay encoding sequence for color themes. The Berlin and Kay encoding sequence is used to determine the various factors involved in the evolution and classification of color terminology. Baines concludes that this model is invaluable when applied to color terms in language and art because it acknowledges that verbal communication as well as cultural factors such as an increase in technological progress is significant in the development, classification and use of color words.
The Berlin and Kay encoding sequence for language specifically proposes that humans possess eleven basic color terms, which serve as the referents of the eleven or fewer color terms in any language. Humans name and identify colors according to their responses from observation, which are in turn primarily influenced by language and a series of other factors. The Berlin and Kay encoding sequence also measures a language’s advancement according to a scale with seven stages (i.e. stage six contains brown and stage seven has purple, pink and orange). Importantly, the encoding sequence takes into account that a pigment can exist in an artistic representation even if a name is not attributed to it.
Evidence from ancient Egypt fits perfectly with the assumptions of the Berlin and Kay encoding sequence. Using an array of evidence from the Old and New Kingdoms of ancient Egypt, Baines claims that the ancient Egyptian language consists of four basic color terms, black, white, red and grue (a mixture between green and blue). However, ancient Egyptian artists used nine different polychrome shades in their artistic representations. The author attributes the difference in the number of color terms in spoken and written language and the number of actual hues used by artists to a rise in the use of special artistic techniques and an increase in linguistic, technological and cultural developments throughout ancient Egypt. This perfectly coincides with the Berlin and Kay encoding sequence, which attributes a rise in linguistic, technological and cultural developments to the specific evolution of color terminology and classification in ancient societies.
CLARITY RANKING: 1
NEDRA LEE Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Baines, John. Color Terminology and Color Classification: Ancient Egyptian Color Terminology Polychromy. American Anthropologist. 1985 Vol. 87: 282-293.
Baines writes a very technical article concerned with both socio-historical and linguistic symbolism. Relying very heavily on previous work and comparisons, Baines examines the use of specific terms for particular color ideas. Also present in the article is the argument against linguistic determinism or the theory that humanity innately gives the same response to the same stimulus. Older research indicated that out that certain ideas were characteristic of humanity as a whole. Baines uses Ancient Egyptian pictorials as a comparison, arguing that while the color ideas may represent common ideas about color, the pictorials do not represent any universal ideas. While this article is very technical and specifically linguistic it can be used in larger discussions of cultural relativism. As it does not directly deal with relativism it is filled with broadly based postmodern ideas.
CLARITY: 1
ARKEY ADAMS York University Toronto (Naomi Adelson)
Belmonte, Thomas. Alexander Lesser (1902-1982). American Anthropologist September 1985 Vol. 87(3):637-644.
Belmonte seeks to show the important theoretical accomplishments, new ideas, and engagements in applied anthropology, which made Alexander Lesser one of the foremost anthropologists of his day. The intellectual life of this man, as well as his life as an activist for Native American rights are reviewed.
The account is ordered chronologically and traces Lesser’s early education under Boas and his resistance to an entirely Boasian and particularist framework. It then traces his career through several different episodes of field research among the Sioux and Pawnee, culminating in the publication of The Pawnee Ghost Dance Hand Game (1933) on the features and implications of the Ghost Dance among the Pawnee. Lesser’s engagement in the debates of the time about the future of anthropology in relation to history and evolutionary theory led him to present a paper about evolutionary theory in 1939 at the AAA meetings, just before Leslie White presented his paper about the future of evolutionary study in anthropology. Lesser’s suggestions to move beyond unilinear evolution were immediately heeded.
Belmonte counts his greatest achievements in publishing the first scientifically sound rebuttal of the race concept, and his position as director of the Association of American Indian Affairs, in which he lobbied for the maintenance of treaty rights of Native Americans along with their rights as citizens of the United States. He was able to turn the organization around, from defunct and under-funded, to a powerful lobbying machine in Washington. He strongly advocated self-determination and continuously fought court battles in defense of this basic right of indigenous people. His work and publications on these issues were translated and published worldwide.
Belmonte concludes that Lesser was an important figure in the development of the discipline of anthropology, theoretically and methodologically, although his theoretical contributions are often forgotten. Belmonte suggests this is in large part because of his middle position between functionalism and American ethnology. The compromise he sought between the two was not popular with either side. He was, however a formidable theoretician in his own right as well as, as a critic. Lesser’s criticisms of Radcliffe-Brown resulted in a more dynamic and workable reformulation of the functional framework.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
GWENDOLYN KELLY Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Belmonte, Thomas. Alexander Lesser (1902-1982). American Anthropologist, 1985 Vol 87:637-643
Thomas Belmonte’s articles is a dedication to the life and work of Alexander Lesser, who passed away in 1982. This article focuses on how his work bears witness to the emergence of cultural anthropology as a vigorous secular force in American life.
The article begins by discussing Lesser’s education at Columbia in the 1920s. Lesser took Boas’s famed general course and then decided to become an anthropologist. Lesser identified himself completely with the critical achievements and radical sympathies of Boasian anthropology, but the strivings of his own intellect led him into a series of departures from the traditions of the master whose heretical originality Lesser himself underplayed. Lesser chose to specialize in the study of kinship because of the wider scope it provided for the construction and testing of social theory. He produced three papers and a dissertation on Siouan kinship.
Following this he went to Pawnee, Oklahoma with his co-worker and his first wife to study Pawnee religion. He produced a masterpiece from this work called The Pawnee Ghost Dance Hand Game which was the first detailed scientific analysis of what were later referred to as “revitalization movements.” It stands as a gripping indictment of the genocidal and ethnocidal assaults, the economic and social fragmentation, and the final subproletarianization that a friendly and cooperative Indian group was forced to suffer. This was a piece of work that will endure.
The article further highlights important parts of Lesser’s work and life. It tells about his lecturing at Columbia and the field research he directed among the Kiowa. It also talks about the 1939 AAA meetings in Chicago where the “primitive homogeneity” of Boasian anthropology was irrevocably shattered which was pivotal to the future of American Anthropology.
One highlight that the article addresses is Lesser’s contribution to the legal battle in which the federal government tried to back out of its treaty obligations with Native Americans. Lesser had a major political impact in Washington and made a difference in the lives of Native Americans.
This article is an excellent summary of Alexander Lesser, an anthropologist who worked hard and made in a difference. He was convinced that anthropology was a revolutionary cultural emergent, a fresh new way of looking at life, which would come to play a decisive historical role whenever people had to make critical choices.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
SHANE MATTE York University (Naomi Adelson)
Briggs, Charles L. The Pragmatics of Proverb Performance in New Mexican Spanish. American Anthropologist December, 1985 Vol. 87(4):793-810.
In this article, Briggs examines the subtle nuances of proverb performance in New Mexican Spanish. His approach to the study of proverbs stems from the belief that a competent analysis of both the meaning and structure can only be found if the interview and other types of information are coupled with the original transcripts of the actual occurrences. There is a two pronged focus to this article, the social setting in which proverbs are used and whether or not proverb performances are an entirely literary phenomenon.
In his analysis he focuses on three exchanges between himself and one of his key informants. Briggs highlights two key uses of proverbs in this community but only one is represented in this study due the invasiveness of the ethnographer. The transcripts are given in both Spanish and English with the proverb italicized, following his theory that a reader needs not only the analysis, but also the conversation to fully understand the proverb. He then breaks down performance into eight prescribed steps that the speaker travels through. He does site variation in the pattern depending upon the skill of the listener and the importance of the intended message. The proverbs themselves are links between modern culture and the wisdom of the past. No modern words or communicative concepts are used during a performance. The proverb performances are an important skill that reinforces and underlines the significance of what is to be said. Acknowledgments and body signals are the only responses that are to be given by the listener. This type of response leads Briggs to the second of his theses.
When speakers begin their performance they must gauge the skill of the listeners and also signal that they are beginning. At the same time the listeners acknowledge that they know a change has taken place in the conversation and they are ready for it with their body language. This in itself is a cue to the skill of the listeners; If they do not acknowledge the performance the speaker knows that they have gauged the skill too high; if they have gauged too low then the listeners knows that they have been slighted. By looking at the “text” as well as more subtle information Briggs hopes to advance the awareness of the relationships between concrete and general understanding in language and culture.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
JULIA E. MACKESSON Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Briggs, Charles. The Pragmatics of Proverb Performance in New Mexican Spanish American Anthropologist 1985 Vol. 87: 793-810.
The main purpose of this article is to examine and explain proverb performance in Cordova, New Mexico among Spanish-speaking ‘Mexicanos’. Briggs spent several years recording conversations with Native Mexicanos in order to understand the use and context of proverb performance in speech. Briggs begins with a definition of the term proverb and details past research that has been done on proverbs.
The author then explains where his research takes place and what he intends to prove. He explains that speech among Cordovans is based on the ability to use rhetoric and the ability to convey feelings of the situation using proper intonation. Briggs believes that there are two contexts for proverbs in Mexicano society. First, elders speaking to each other, and second, elders speaking to those younger than them. He then gives two examples of these contexts through two dialogues taken from his time spent with native Cordovans (given in Spanish and then translated to English).
Briggs goes on to explain the eight features of proverb performance which are: tying phrases, identity of the owner, quotation-framing verb, proverb text, special association, general meaning, relevance to context, and validation of the performance. Each feature is described in detail. He explains that some of the features are not always obvious in many proverb performances and that different combinations of the features are used depending on the context of the conversation.
In his conclusion, Briggs links his study of Mexicano proverb performance to the broader issue of the use of language in society. In order to further understand this he uses several examples of other proverb and speech studies. Briggs suggests that proverb performances can be used to better understand social interaction and the role of speech in a given society. He then re-enforces this with his study of Mexicano proverb performance.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
SANDRA FARFAN York University (Naomi Adelson).
Buikstra, Jane E. and Lyle W. Konigsberg. Paleodemographies: Critiques and Controversies. American Anthropologist June, 1985 Vol.87 (2): 316-333.
The authors evaluate and contest criticisms leveled against the use of life tables in paleodemography by Bocquet-Appel and Masset in an article entitled “Farewell to Paleodemography,” published in 1982. They address each specific comment, citing evidence in the paleodemographic literature and statistical results of simulations conducted by the authors themselves. The critiques generally deal with biases introduced by reference samples and the population-specificity of techniques for estimating age in skeletal remains. Based on their analyses, Bocquet-Appel and Masset’s comments are extreme, but the authors agree that problems with imprecision of age indicators in older adults and interobserver error remain.
The first criticism they address is the statement that paleopopulation mortality profiles do not vary significantly from those of the reference samples used to generate them. Buikstra and Konigsberg assess this statement as incorrect and refer to the Nubian sample originally cited by Bocquet-Appel and Masset, which actually was significantly different from the reference series used to generate it.
The next proposition they evaluate is that standards developed from populations with unevenly represented age classes are likely to lead to biased estimates. Bocquet-Appel and Masset claim this based on their subsampling of estimates derived from defining cranial suture closure, which has been known to be a questionable age indicator for some time. Buikstra and Konigsberg are not convinced by this claim because it is based on data using this unreliable standard. Furthermore, they express that physical anthropologists agree that standards for estimating age should be based on the widest possible age range, and they cite studies in which microscopic aging techniques have been shown to be reliable across age categories.
Bocquet-Appel and Masset allege that age-estimation standards are reliable only for the population, sex, or age group for which they are developed. Buikstra and Konigsberg note that pubic symphesis and bone microscopic aging standards are relatively reliable across populations, osteonal and dental techniques do not produce any apparent sex bias, and concerns about age estimation in adults above 50 or 55 can be resolved by using dental and osteonal methods.
Bocquet-Appel and Masset further claim that methods are insufficiently accurate to the extent that reliable life table parameters cannot be established, and that the information conveyed by age indicators is so poor that any variations in age distributions can only be attributed to errors of method or random fluctuations. The authors respond by saying that Bocquet-Appel and Masset falsely assume that these problems are impossible to correct, and examine life tables generated from 26 different North American skeletal samples. Their statistical analyses to determine the sources of variance suggest that comparing specific values may be dangerous, but comparing shape functions can be meaningful.
Overall, the authors find much of the criticism to be overgeneralized or unfounded, but they concede that there is an urgent need to improve upon methods for accurately estimating age in older adults and to standardize techniques across observers. Paleodemographic results must also be evaluated in light of what is considered to be biologically reasonable.
CLARITY RANKING: 2
MARGARET BERGER Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Buikstra, Jane E., Lyle W. Konigsberg. Paleodemography: Critiques and ControversiesAmerican Anthropologist. 1985 Vol. 87: 316-333
The article by Buikstra and Konigsberg explores the field of paleodemography, which is the study of population distribution, vital rates, and population density of extinct humans. They focus on humans groups for which there were no written records for. This field is very important for explaining the course of human evolution. It encompasses the expertise of physical and forensic anthropology, and archeology. The main importance for this area of study was estimating general demographic patterns (for example age at death and sex), and to summarize the ways that allowed populations to be compared. In order to have a better understanding of the “past”, the authors mentioned the need to utilize an appropriate comparative technique. The technique proposed was the use of life tables as a means of contrasting human life expectancies and mortality schedules across generations. However, there are beliefs that such research into the evolutionary line of human groups can not be accurately calculated, thus leaving room for error and difficulties in the studying of the past.
The article focused on the five criticisms of Bocquet-Appel and Masset (1982) with respect to these life tables and the “imprecision of skeletal aging methodology” ( a method using skeletal remains to study extinct populations). Each criticism was presented in detail and discussed the implications about the assumptions made in the human evolutionary process, proving the assumptions to be very critical and possessing a high occurrence of error. The authors stated the need to refine methods for accurately estimating age in older adults and to standardize aging techniques across observers. Also, attention to statistical techniques for population comparisons would be ideal.
CLARITY: 2
CARLA DI GIANDOMENICO York University. (Naomi Adelson)
Devine, John. The Versatility of Human Locomotion. American Anthropologist September, 1985 Vol.87(3):550-570
In this article, Devine addresses the way we view human locomotion. When studying human bipedalism, researchers use evidence from the non-human primates, the hominid and nonhominid fossil record, and modern humans. Devine challenges the way that we examine modern human locomotion, claiming that it is oversimplified and ethnocentric. Traditionally, researchers have labeled humans as having a “striding gait”. This statement ignores much of the variety in human motion. Devine proposes that this oversimplification is a result of researchers using a Western, post-industrialized perspective, in which humans ideally lead more sedentary lives and fail to utilize the full range of possible human movements. Devine uses various written records to create a more thorough view of human locomotion in many cultures. Reports from missionaries, explorers, ethnographers, and recent anthropologists are all used as data. For the sake of manageability, Devine examines five generalized aspects of human locomotion: endurance, speed, burden bearing, climbing, and single file walking.
Ethnographic studies have greatly expanded our views on human endurance. Individuals living in band societies or subsistence economies are capable of much greater feats of endurance than we once thought possible. Recent studies of the Tarahumaran have lead scientists to double what they once thought was the maximum work tolerance for humans. Devine also challenges the assumption that modern humans are inferior, in speed and agility, to other mammals. Most of our estimates of maximal speed come either from racing animals that humans have selectively bred for speed, or captive animals in controlled conditions. Studies of various animals in the wild show a much lower range of speeds. While Western society places a great deal of importance on the sprint, in most societies it is speed over long distances that is vital. After revision, the modern human range of speeds and that of many quadrupeds overlap considerably.
Various reports from Africa, India, and Mesoamerica show that humans are also capable of carrying immense burdens over long distances. Devine claims that Westerners tend to consider burden bearing as unnatural. However, this burden bearing ability seems to be an integral part of many societies and may very well have been selected for during human evolution. Climbing is an often overlooked aspect of human locomotion. Scientists often fail to see how well adapted modern humans are for climbing. Many reports depict humans climbing great heights and making much greater use of their toes. Humans may not have sacrificed as much climbing ability as is often thought during the shift to bipedal locomotion. There is also a tendency for individuals in many societies to walk in single file. Western society appears to be the exception rather than the rule in not favoring this arrangement.
This article presents a new dimension to the study of human movement. Devine makes a good case for an expanded view of human locomotion that takes into account the wide range of movements used in various societies.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
SARAH MULLEN Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Devine, J. The Versatility of Human Locomotion. American Anthropologist 1985 Vol. 87:550-564
The author’s objective is to describe his study that he did on the evolution of human bipedal posture and locomotion. The author studied three different groups, the extant nonhuman primates, the hominid and nonhominid fossils and modern humans. The author pointed out “Analysis of the interrelationship of structure and behaviour in the living primates creates model for our understanding of the morphology and locomotion of the extinct form. Comparisons between these models and what we know of Homo sapiens enable us to make inferences about the evolutionary changes that took place.” Although modern studies have recognized the inherent complexities and the many interpretations surrounding the first and second of theses analogues, the range of human locomotion has too often been reduced to the familiar “bipedal striding gait.”
Human locomotion was studied in 160 societies through the use of early travel accounts and ethnographic literature. These pieces of information helped Devine get a clear answer on the evolution of locomotion. Devine concluded that as a result of the values western society has placed on an inactive way of life which devaluates movement, the common “striding gait” of humans has taken on a kind of misplaced concreteness. It is seen that that different variations and subtle differences in gait, style, speed and endurance play a big part in the growth of human locomotion. These multiple concepts have important implications for the construction of models of the evolution of hominid bipedalism.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
DORY CARSON York University (Naomi Adelson)
Edmonson, Munro S. Marshall E. Durbin 1936-1983). American Anthropologist June, 1985 Vol. 87(2):378-379.
The linguistic anthropologist Marshall E. Durbin was born August 18, 1936, in Ramsey, Illinois and died December 16, 1983, in St. Louis. His academic career took him to Eastern Illinois University, the University of Southern California, SUNY Buffalo where he earned his Ph.D. in 1964, Cornell, Tulane, and Washington University, where he spent most of his career. He is noted for his high standards for specific and concrete data. In his work with the Mayan language, he maintained his empirical approach. In “Sound Symbolism in the Mayan Language Family” (1973) he explored the importance of final consonants and initial consonants in Yucatec. Durbin also examined the Mayan hieroglyphics in great detail, however he felt that more research was needed for true decipherment and did not fully accept the historical readings of Mayan hieroglyphs. As a result of this, his own Yucatec dictionary remains unpublished. Along with Fernando Ojeda, Durbin examined Mayan grammar at a fundamental level, focusing on semantic questions. Durbin also worked on a University of Missouri project on cognition among Athbascan Slavery of Canada (1974-75). In Venezuela, he studied many obscure Cariban languages, focusing on the historical relationships. He is remembered not only for his collaborations with fellow scholars, but also with his students both in the United States and abroad. He was the director of the UNESCO-Mexican Ethnolinguistics Program in Patzcuaro from 1979-1980. His many contributions to the field of anthropological linguistics, as well as his enthusiasm, wit, and unending fascination with the nature of words have made lasting impacts in the field.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
SARAH MULLEN Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Edmonson, Munro S. 1985. Marshall E. Durbin (1936-1983). American Anthropologist 1985Vol. 87 (2): 378-379.
The article by Edmonson is an obituary highlighting and reflecting on the life of the late Marshall E. Durbin. Marshall E. Durbin (Edmonson, 1985: 378-379) was a linguistic anthropologist who dedicated his career to the study of Mayan linguistics. Durbin, according to Edmonson (1985: 379), also made advances in the study of Athabaskan and Cariban languages. Durbin is described by Edmonson (1985: 378-379) as a dedicated researcher who demanded precision and dedication in his own work and in that of other’s. His sphere of research (Edmonson, 1985: 378) included works that analyzed theoretical issues in linguistics that encompassed “social, psychological, and cognitive issues.”
As a person Durbin is described (Edmonson, 1985: 378-379) as an individual who shared his work and ambitions with those who surrounded him and one who did not let geographical distances keep him from those he associated with during his life. According to Edmonson (1985: 378), Durbin was a researcher who based his findings, whether theoretical or otherwise, on the validity of the data that was being used. Durbin, according to Edmonson (1985: 378), did not limit his research to one area, he help gather linguistic knowledge in “Arizona, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela.” It is apparent from Durbin’s wide geographical sphere of study that took interest in exploring linguistics from a cross-cultural perspective that probably gave him diverse and stimulating results. Durbin’s dedication to his work as described by Edmonson (1985: 378-379) was apparently what he enjoyed most in life and in the opinion of this author, Dr. Durbin’s dedication to his work is a good model for present and future social scientists.
Armando Reyes California State University, Hayward. (Peter Claus).
Finney, Ben R. Anomalous Westerlies, El Nino, and the Colonization of Polynesia.American Anthropologist January, 1985. Vol. 83 (1): 9-26.
Finney proposes an explanation for the west to east migration of the Polynesians and their Lapita predecessors in the Pacific. Using aeronautical charts, ethnohistorical data, the El Nino phenomenon and data gathered during recent El Nino events, he shows how they could use periodic westerly wind reversals to sail eastward.
Finney first shows the illogical nature of the previous explanation for the migrations, where the assumption was that they simply sailed into the wind. With the loaded canoes of the Polynesians, says Finney, one nautical mile against the wind would equal 3.9 miles, which would add up to far too many extra miles for them to travel.
Finney next proposes his new model. The winds do not always travel east to west, and in fact, says Finney, the southeast trade winds of the western Pacific are often replaced by westerly winds. Finney looks at charts made by the US Navy Hydrographic Office that show seasonality in the strength of these winds. During El Nino events, “the westerly wind reversals can last much longer and extend much farther to the east than their usual annual limits.” Finney uses data from the 1982-83 El Nino event as an example.
Historical documents show that the 18th and 19th century Polynesian mariners were familiar with the patterns of these westerly winds and often used them to sail eastward. Finney proposes that the Lapitians, the Polynesian ancestors, “must have waited for favorable westerly winds in order to make their way to the east.” Typically these western winds come in spells that may last up to ten days, long enough for west to east island hopping.
Finney also looks at more risky west to east ventures, such as the archaeological evidence supporting the early settling of the Marquesas. He explains this venture as an especially strong El Nino occurrence. He also discusses the possibility that the Polynesians may have reached as far east as South America, showing that the South American sweet potato was historically found to be cultivated in eastern Polynesia.
With such ventures, says Finney, there was also a definite risk. The Lapitians must have had some desire to expand eastward. Archaeological evidence supports the idea of organized colonizing expeditions traveling from west to east, which suggests an organized strategy on the part of the oceanic voyagers. However, this remains uncertain.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
MICHAEL SEVERINO Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Finney, Ben. Anomalous Westerlies, El Nino, and the Colonization of Polynesia. American Anthropologist 1985 Vol.87:9-25
The article begins with a brief introduction to Pacific pre-history of how the Polynesians migrated from South-east Asia across to the Pacific against current, and winds with heavy loads on board their canoes. Archeologists determined that if it had not been for their dynamic sails, deep hulls and centerboards strategically positioned they would not be able to sail directly windward for a long distance.
Finney went further to find the correlation between the annual and monthly wind patterns with Lapita-Polenesian migration trails. Only to discover archeological proof of radiocarbon dating of migrants spreading quickly along the coast. They strategically wait for the westerlies in November, December and January when the wind currents was not as strong before they migrate. Which is why they were able to migrate along the coast so quickly.
Western Polynesia consisted of the island of Fiji, Tenga and Samoa. As migration continued the Polynesian homeland grew along side to Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand. They questioned how they managed to get to Tahiti and Marquesas when the routes pass directly through deep wind currents. They figured that it could have been a result of El Nino that they landed on Marquesas and began to settle and colonize in other areas.
Easter Islands was the furthest east that the Polynesians traveled. There was only one or two canoes that actually made it to the island surviving a cold and stormy passage. They have reason to believe that they reached South America because of the vegetation growth of the sweet potato which originated in South America. They admit that it is plausible providing the facts, but it is impossible to confirm past voyages.
The circulation of the Polynesians migrants was a series of voyages from island to island. The most convenient times to migrate was during the seasons where the wind was in their favor. They were strategic enough to analyze which months are the best for traveling the seas and intelligent enough to navigate without any instruments.
CLARITY: 3
MELISSA MOKEDANZ York University (Naomi Adelson)
Greenhalgh, Susan. Is Inequality Demographically Induced? The Family Cycle and the Distribution of Income in Taiwan. American Anthropologist September, 1985 Vol. 87(3):571-594.
By exploring the sources of inequality and mobility in a sample of Taiwanese families, Susan Greenhalgh attempts to test A. V. Chayanov’s hypothesis that rural inequality is demographically induced. While some change in economic and social inequality stems from global economic and political change, Chayanov argues that it is the natural cycle of the change in a family’s distribution that causes economic mobility. Greenhalgh researches this hypothesis by statistically analyzing the economic data from both a demographic and a social standpoint and then comparing the results to see if either factor had an obviously stronger correlation.
In the comparative analysis the family cycle was shown to be the most important source of economic difference when compared with social class for this sample population. She feels that causality is not an issue of which factor causes the other, but rather how much each factor affects the other and at what points in time the different processes carry more weight. In order to determine how much inequality was due to each factor alone, Greenhalgh “controlled for” class by measuring the contribution of the family cycle to inequality within each class (587). She concludes that in this community Chayanov was correct; a substantial component of inequality is demographically based. However, she feels that research needs to be done in other cultural contexts and that the importance of the family cycle will differ in societies that are based on nuclear families.
The author is very methodical and presents a great deal of statistical detail with many charts and graphs that must be read very closely and carefully.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
JULIA E. MACKESSON Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Greenhalgh, Susan. Is Inequality Demographically Induced? The Family Cycle and the Distribution of Income in Taiwan. American Anthropologist 1985 Vol. 87: 571-594
Susan Greenhalgh explores the nature and causes of economic inequality focusing on the debate between Chayanov’s and Marxists theories. Chayanov argues that the causes for economic inequality are demographic, while Marxists argue they are social. Taking root in Chayanov’s socio-demographic theory, Greenhalgh argues that families go through cycles which create patterns of income fluctuation. Thus, it is the repercussions of different phases in the family cycle that causes inequality and poverty.
The data was collected within 21 months of research in northern Taiwan (1978-1980), utilizing intensive family interviews as the primary source of information. The interviews were semi structured consisting of informal interactions in which Greenhalgh attempted to gather data about economic and demographic changes for the period of 1948-78. She specifies nonetheless, that the income figures she uses should be treated as estimates.
Recognizing that identical data had supported both Chayanov’s and Marxist theories, she decided to discover how the factors exposed in each theory affected each other and at what times they operated individually. She studied each factor by controlling the other, and found out that in Taiwanese society the family cycle accounts for “about two times as much more inequality, three times as much mobility, and one and three quarters times as much mobility into and out of poverty as social class”. Accordingly, she concludes that an essential part of economic inequality concerns the familial demographic for at least one Chinese sample, as Chayanov had previously suggested.
Nevertheless, Greenhalgh stated that her conclusions must remain as a hypothesis. Her research was based on a small non-random sample, therefore research with a larger representative sample is needed to corroborate and validate her findings. Likewise, research has to be replicated in other cultural settings in order for her conclusions to be considered legitimate. Greenhalgh, at the same time believes that a smaller distributional impact would be felt in societies where families are nuclear.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
RAQUEL ZEPEDA York University (Naomi Adelson).
Hockett, Charles F. Distinguished Lecture: F. American Anthropologist June, 1985. Vol. 87(2):263-281.
In his “Distinguished Lecture: F,” Charles F. Hockett puts forth a hypothesis that even he admits ought to be met with skepticism. He suggests a correlation between the use of f-sounds and the practice of agriculture.
While doing research on language systems, Hockett noticed the relative scarcity of the f-sound in world languages. His initial research figured that only 19% of language used f-sounds, but after he started his investigation, later information corrected the figure to 44%. Nevertheless, the author decided that the chronological and geographical distribution of f-sounds were more interesting than the frequency and continued his research.
The article travels around the globe, systematically listing the geographical distribution of the f-sound and its relationship to the onset of agriculture. The distribution does not have distinct boundaries, as use and non-use languages are mixed within regions and continents. F-sounds predominate in European and Near Eastern languages, and in Chinese dialects. Conversely, the sound is less common or nonexistent in the rest of Asia and aboriginal North and South America.
Hockett relates farming to the use of f-sounds because he finds the sound to be absent in populations that do not use agriculture. He also states that current evidence shows that f-sounds developed after the advent of agriculture. According to the author, the move from the need to cut and tear flesh from to the increase in consumption of cereal grains affected dentition and tooth wear. The diet change caused the edge bite, in which the incisors meet edge-to-edge, to be replaced by the scissors bite, where the top row of incisors slides in front of the bottom row, allowing for greater use of the molars to grind food. If a person has a scissors bite, Hockett explains, he or she can more easily produce f-sounds.
Ultimately, the author is not convinced that his hypothesis is correct. He admits the lack of data and research on dental configuration as it relates to his theory, and suggests further examination of the evidence.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
REBECCA DEEB Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Hockett, Charles F. Distinguished Lecture: F. American Anthropologist 1985 Vol.87:263-281
Hockett examines the occurrence of the voiced labial fricative f-sound throughout the world. He hypothesizes that where the f-sound occurs, there is a relationship between the existence of the sound in a language and agriculture.
In various other studies, the sound is found to exist over space and time. Although a language may use the f-sound, it could have been introduced only relatively recently. All the European languages have f-sounds. Around Oceania and the Philippines, the sound exists equally as much as it does not. In Africa, one part of the country has almost no f-sounds while another part has a high occurrence of them. Only parts of Russia have the f-sound. In the aboriginal North America the sound is somewhat rare but easily overlooked. The sound is more rare in southern Asia and aboriginal South America. Tibetan and Burmese languages have no f-sounds. Hockett examines this data, finding that crop raising is correlated to the possible existence of f-sounds. Where no agriculture exists, no f-sounds are found.
A historical aspect of the distribution is also examined. Where importation of words and language has occurred through the economically dominant language, the introduction of the f-sound into the dialect can be found. Where agriculture did not always exist, recent cultivation can still have an effect. The f-sound, according to Hockett, can be introduced through one sound of a language becoming the f-sound, or that the f-sound can be introduced from other languages. The origin of the f-sound is examined among several protolanguages. The f-sound can be gained and lost several ways.
With the evidence of the existence and history of f-sounds in languages, Hockett proceeds to theorize that the existence of the sound can be linked to the position of teeth. Eating different foods changed the shape of the mouth and teeth, therefore changing the range of pronunciation. So with the introduction of agriculture, diet changed. This environmental factor combined with genetic factors changed the formation of the teeth and jaw, leading to the existence of the f-sound among certain dialects of languages.
CLARITY: 4
ANNA COLOMBO York University (Naomi Adelson)
Keesing, R. Kwaio Women Speak: The Micro politics of Autobiography in a Solomon Island Society. American Anthropologist. 1985 Vol. 87:27-37
The objective of this article is to show an example of a society where the sexes are polarized and women are placed under jural control over men, and are forced to stay confined to their homes. These women tend to be very silent and are very uneasy to speak about “global” views. This idea of women being worthless and not respected has posed both a theoretical and political problem for feminist anthropology and a frustration to ethnographers who would open women’s lives to comparative view. Research was done among the Kwaio of Malaita in the Solomon Islands in 1963 and evidence was shown that there is a very define line between the men and women in terms of political and social obligations.
Women in a Tribal society are less likely to have a “global” view of their culture because their restricted participation in a public context. What women can and will say about their also reflects the politics of the situation both in relations to male control over the ethnographic process and in relation to the value and pressures that shape women’s self-conceptions. In the present women are slowly gaining more right and are slowly becoming equals too men. Women’s lives and freedoms have changed quiet dramatically through Western influences and pacification. The effect of pacification on women’s lives has been remarkable. Before pacification, the threat of violence and sudden execution directed against women gave men an ultimate physical power over women’s lives that they no longer have.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
DORY CARSON York University (Naomi Adelson)
Kurland, Jeffrey and Stephen Beckerman. Optimal Foraging and Human Evolution: Labor and Reciprocity. American Anthropologist March, 1985 Vol. 87(1):73-90
For many years tool use and related adaptations have been proposed as the original cause for the evolution of human social behavior. Kurland and Beckerman propose an alternate theory for the evolution of human social behavior. They argue that as early hominoids migrated into savanna environments they encountered more clumped and patchy resources that favored a more coordinated foraging strategy with exchange of information among individuals. This put selection pressure on reciprocity and caused the formation of what is now seen as a uniquely human form of social organization.
In order to test this theory Kurland and Beckerman use optimal foraging theory. An individual should acquire food at the best possible rate. By examining the time required to find the food, the time needed to handle the food and consume it, the caloric yield of the food, and the probability of encountering the food type in a given environment, one can determine an optimal forging strategy. Studies of non-human tool-using animals using this method show that tool use decreases total handling time, but do not show any increased social behavior. Most tool using animals still forage individually. While some pongids learn of tool use through observation, most tool using animals learn by accident or reinvention.
There is little consensus on the diet of early hominids, however there is some agreement on the nature of Miocene climatic changes and their effects on the environment. Increased open areas and a temperate climate would have lead to a savanna environment. Regardless of whether these early hominids were mainly herbivores, hunters, scavengers, or some combination, this environmental shift would cause greater dispersal of good foraging patches. In this case search time becomes the limiting factor in foraging efficiency. Sharing information about the location and quality of food items decreases overall search time. As long as all individuals encounter difficulties foraging, then information exchange would be to the benefit of the individual and lead to the evolution of a system of reciprocity. Somewhat larger group size would be advantageous, especially if the members are close relatives, thereby bringing kin selection into the equation. Any system of reciprocity is vulnerable to cheaters, but as long as individuals can interact preferentially and punish cheaters, a stable system can be maintained.
This model is untestable at the present time because there is little data on food encounter probabilities in the literature. However, Kurland and Beckerman do propose a method of experimental behavioral paleoanthropology to supply some of the missing data. Researches could use the African plains to test distributions, foraging strategies, and communication strategies. With increased foraging data this model for the evolution of social behavior could be tested and revised.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
SARAH MULLEN Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Kurland A. Jeffrey and Stephen Beckerman. Optimal Forging and Hominid Evolution: Labor and Reciprocity. American Anthropologist 1985 Vol. 87: 73-93.
This article argues that during the course of hominid evolution cooperative foraging incorporating data exchange may have preceded tool use. Rodman and Mchenry (1980) have argued that hominid bipedalism may have evolved during which, foraging activity necessitated increased travel between food patches. Thus, the following article suggests efficient feeding tactic to have been responsible for the evolution of eusocial hominids from gregarious hominids. Considering the principles of optimal Foraging Theory to provide the basis for the stated hypothesis. Thus, by investigating search, labour, and handling time and optimal foraging model, the article concludes that by foraging for large, widely distributed prey may have favoured information sharing and thus food sharing by early hominids. As a result of group labour activity then the evolution of human manipulative and cognitive ability may have increased. Thereby, considering the logically and temporally, acquiring food has priority in human evolution. Thus, a key to hominid evolution is the social foraging dependent on communication and resource exchange of information.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
AZADEH ZARE-MOAYEDI York University, (Naomi Adelson)
Landsman, Gail. Ganienkeh: Symbol and Politics in an Indian/White Conflict. American Anthropologist 1985 Vol. 87:826-837.
The author of this article demonstrates the use of symbols and politics in a land conflict in upstate New York between Mohawks and Whites. At the highest level of generality, the concern expressed in the article is the relation of meaning, stored in symbols, to political action. The ongoing land dispute, begun in 1974, offers an opportunity to examine an ‘Indian/White’ land dispute over an extended period of time (the dispute was not settled when the article was written 1985).
For Whites the controversy was between rural upstate and urban downstate interests; for Mohawks, the pre-existing controversy was the historical struggle for sovereignty. These two controversies serve as “interpretive frameworks” by means of which dispute participants understand events and in terms of which they have acted and presented their case to the public for support. The writer uses the term “interpretive framework” in the analysis to suggest the type of connection existing between various meanings in the dispute. The article illustrates how specific symbols in the dispute changed over time and space and how their mobilization efficacy was derived from the basic upstate/downstate controversy. The upstate/downstate conflict provided both sides with a pool of symbols from which to draw for the specific dispute and a conceptual framework for interpreting and acting on events. In the first years of the conflict and for the purpose of taking the land, the Mohawks used frameworks and symbols of sovereignty. The struggle for land is both a return to the past and a promise of a future as the Mohawk nation. Past and future, sovereignty and land, are all inextricably linked, and their intertwined meanings provide a basis for Mohawk action in the dispute.
White residents continue to see “sovereignty” as a double standard of justice inflicted upon them by an urban, downstate-controlled state government. Throughout the course of the dispute, events have been interpreted within these two frameworks. For this reason, the dispute is only temporarily resolved in each arena. Landsman suggests that an answer for how symbols are made to work in political mobilisation can be found in the concurrence of changes in symbols with continuity of interpretive frameworks. Furthermore, the process of symbol changes and manipulates over time the concept of interpretive framework and offers insight into how symbols are used to link meaning to political action.
CLARITY: 3
KARRIE SANDFORD York University (Adelson).
Laughlin, William S. Russian-American Bering Sea Relations: Research and Reciprocity.American Anthropologist December, 1985 Vol. 87 (4): 775-792.
In this article, the author reviews the historical research exchange between the US and the former USSR with regard to the Bering Sea area. “Russia-American” is used in the context of this article to refer to the historic period falling between 1741 and 1867. This historic period not only defined Russians as neighbors and “ancestors,” but also provoked a series of research questions that continue to reappear. Laughlin calls attention to the legacy of sustained observations from the last 250 years between heads of state, individual researchers, and through joint field research.
Through a chronicling of the individual researchers and their methodologies, the author shows how a sustained cultural interface of exchange has existed between the two counties for well over 250 years. The four scholars chronicles by the author are William Dall, Dr. Waldemar Jochelson, Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, and Alexei Okladnikov. The uniqueness of the Berlin Sea and its inhabitants, along with the shared history of occupation by the US and the former USSR, offers a ripe opportunity for US-Russian research exchange.
The author discusses and focuses on the need for reciprocation to continue, and hopes that in the future more researchers will appear and will further benefit from the long chain of researchers and research exchanges already existing. American scholars should continue their investigations and continually engage Soviet scholars in systematic investigations for mutual benefit.
CLARITY RANKING: 2
MICHAEL BOBICK Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Laughlin W.S. Russian-American Bering Sea Relations: Research and Reciprocity American Anthropologist 1985. Vol. 87:775-792
This is an article based on the various researches done on Aleuts and Alaska. The “Russian-American” term that the author uses in the article is referring to the historic period between 1741 and 1867. The author discusses about how Bering’s discovery of Alaska and the Aleuts had opened the way for Russian occupation of the Aleutians and Alaska. He says, “It also raised fundamental research questions concerning the origins of Aleuts, Eskimos, and other Indians, how long they had been there, their affinities and adaptations – in short, their population and their cultural history.” (Pg.775) What follows that was a series of test excavations carried out in the name of scientific research on the original inhabitant as well as the surrounding area of the Bering Sea. The shared history of the Russian and American occupation of the same area and the unique geographical location that defines the southern border of the Bering Sea. (Pg.789) The works carried out by the research chain extends from anthropometry and anthropology to ethnography, archeology, and language. The author later adds that photography is now considered as an effective research method. He introduces 2 of the many teams who were conducting researches in the Aleutians. They are Dr.Waldemar Jochelson and his wife, Dr. Dina Brodsky, and Dr. Ales Hrdlicka. The article suggests that the methods of data collection by some researchers are shoddy. Some important data were omitted simply because they were considered “trivial” by the researcher. The author adds at the end of the article “American scholars should continue and extend their investigations while hoping for opportunities to engage Soviet scholars in systematic and specific problems of mutual benefit.” (Pg.788)
Personal photographs of the author taken during his field study as well as relevant tables and maps of the area are included in this article.
This is an interesting article to read although it then to get a little boring at certain theoretical parts.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
LIZA POH York University (Naomi Adelson).
Lukacs, John R. Tooth Size Variation in Prehistoric India. American Anthropologist December, 1985 Vol.87 (4): 811-825.
The author describes permanent tooth crown measurements and indices for Late Chalcolithic skeletal populations from Inamgaon (1700-700 B.C.) in western India in an attempt to gain further understanding of dental crown dimensions for prehistoric South Asian populations. The Inamgaon total crown area is only 3.1% smaller than the figure reported for early Neolithic skeletons from Pakistan, indicating the relatively large size of the Inamgaon dentition. This is interpreted as a biological adaptation to coarse dietary items, food preparation methods, and a mixed economy of collecting fruit and hunting.
The specimens evaluated in this study came from three distinct culture periods: Period I, Malwa (1700-1400 B.C.), Period II, Early Jorwe (1400-1200 B.C.), and Period III, Late Jorwe (1200-700 B.C.). This analysis is based on pooled samples of permanent teeth from different cultural levels since subdividing the sample by cultural period yielded inadequately small samples. Each tooth was measured for two values—the maximum mesiodistal diameter and the maximum buccolingual diameter. These values were used to calculate crown area, crown index, and crown module, which reflect crown size, shape, and bulk, respectively. Three more values were calculated to determine genetic affinity, including incisor breadth index, molarization index, and step-index. These represent various size ratios between different teeth in an individual and are believed to be ethnically patterned.
Lukacs takes into account an understanding of the evolutionary mechanisms that cause dental reduction and a detailed consideration of ancestry, mode of subsistence, diet and food preparation methods in order to explain large tooth size among Chalcolithic people at Inamgaon. Both selective and nonselective evolutionary mechanisms contribute to dental reduction. Selective models interpret small tooth size as an advantageous adaptation based on many factors, including somatic budget effect, susceptibility to disease, reduction in robusticity of jaws, decrease in sexual dimorphism, and body size reduction. Nonadaptive models view dental reduction as caused by suspended natural selection for large tooth size. The author thinks the large teeth of the Jorwe people at Inamgaon are plausibly explained by masticatory stress associated with a mixed economy and basic food preparation methods, and a genetic predisposition for large teeth inherited from their ancestors of the Malwa culture.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
MARGARET BERGER Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Lukacs, John R. Tooth Size Variation in Prehistoric India. American Anthropologist 1985 Vol. 87:811-825
This article represents a study of tooth size variation within prehistoric India. More specifically, this paper discusses permanent crown tooth measurements and indices for the Late Chacolithic skeletal series from Inamgaon, in Western India (1700-700 B.C.). The figures collected during this investigation were cross-analyzed with tooth-size data from prehistoric populations in India, as well as both contemporary and primeval populations outside the South Asian subcontinent. This descriptive and comparative analysis of permanent teeth from Inamgaon (a prehistoric farming village in western Maharashtra) consists of three distinct parts. The first part represents explicit documentation of dental crown dimensions and indices. The second part depicts the comparative analysis of tooth crown size. Finally, the third part is a discussion of dental indices and “ethnic affiliation”.
The author asserts that the study of tooth size variation is quite significant to anthropology, in regards to skeletal observation. This is due to the fact that well-preserved skulls are extremely rare (or absent). Dental morphology and the study of crown dimensions therefore provide the most reliable evidence concerning “genetic affinities, health status, and biological adaptedness of the population”. Due to this reasoning, anatomical variation of teeth, as well as population differences in tooth size and morphology have been profoundly examined by Western anthropologists.
The results of this study conclude that the Inamgaon permanent teeth (which are 1 218mm²) are extremely similar to the prehistoric skeletal series from Mahurjhari, India, Nok Nok Tha, Thailand, and Bellan Bandi Palassa, Sri Lanka. The researchers also found that the Inamgaon tooth size (total crown area) is only 3.1% smaller than the figure reported earlier from similar areas. What is therefore concluded is that the relatively large tooth size at Inamgaon can be interpreted as a biological acculturation to unrefined nutritive items. Some influencing factors include basic food preparation, the hunting of wild game and wild fruit collection.
CLARITY RANKING: 2
ARTHUR HAGOPIAN York University (Naomi Adelson)
Molnar, Stephen and I.M. Molnar. The Incidence of Enamel Hypoplasia among the Krapina Neandertals. American Anthropologist September, 1985 Vol. 87(3): 536-549.
In this article, the authors investigate developmental defects of teeth as a record of metabolic disturbances during growth. The sample investigated in this study is from a group of Neandertal skeletal fragments, specifically from the Krapina Neandertals of Croatia, located in the former Yugoslavia. Eighteen individuals are represented in the study, and thirteen show evidence of hypoplasia.
Hypoplasia is a quantitative defect, resulting in less than the normal amount of enamel in certain positions on the crown. Due to the incremental nature of tooth development, locations of tooth defects and lesions can be located in positions that mark the approximate time of metabolic disturbance. In terms of the eighteen remains studied, thirteen had evidence of enamel dysplasia of both the linear and pitting types.
The authors compare the result of the Neandertal dental attrition survey with other Bronze Age peoples and investigate the amount of flourosis seen in the populations. The authors end the article by describing some of the promise that dental tissues holds as a record of developmental disturbances which may prove useful in comparative, bioanthropological population studies.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
MICHAEL BOBICK Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Morris, Craig. Obituary: Junius Bouton Bird (1907-1982) American Anthropologist March, 1985 Vol. 87(1):120-122.
This obituary relates the interests and enthusiasm of Junius Bouton Bird. Bird, who passed away on April 2, 1982, was an American archeologist whose work covered the early occupation of South America and Andean technology, such as textiles. This work was primarily in Chile and Peru. North American archeology also caught his interest, and he conducted research in Panama. He was a careful collector of materials and information relating to ecology and climate, and he helped initiate the use of absolute chronologies. For most of his professional life, Bird was curator of South American Archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. In addition, he received several awards from both his peers and the popular press.
While his professional work was outstanding, Bird’s personal demeanor and accessibility made him popular among students and colleagues. Craig Morris explains that Bird’s office in the museum was usually occupied by visitors seeking help, who he enthusiastically assisted. He and his wife readily entertained guests with meals and stories. The obituary includes portions of letters sent to Bird’s wife Peggy after his death in order to convey his personal nature. From last-minute exhibit solutions to his unfailing willingness to explain new discoveries, the passages illustrate his approachability and passion for archeology.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
REBECCA DEEB Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Parmentier, Richard J. Diagrammatic Icons and Historical Processes in Belau. American Anthropologist December, 1985 Vol. 87(4):840-850.
Richard Parmentier has examined diagrammatic icons in Belau in order to better understand how icons help direct social activity and how they have influenced social change as Belau has gone through the cultural changes of colonialism and other modern influences. He has included four diagrammatic icons in this article; paths, sides, cornerposts, and what he calls larger/smaller. Parmentier has focused on the meaning of each diagram in the Belauan mind and how they intermingle in the context of Belauan society.
The path can be applied to a physical path or trail; “a “way” of doing something” (841). In the realm of social relationships a path implies the proper route of reciprocity. It implies social linkage and repeated action between families or other social groups. A side alludes to the fact that in the Belauan mind if there is one side there must be a second. All sides are a half of one thing, and “pure opposition is the essential feature…”(841) to the pair. A village may be separated into two sides just as the men’s and women’s clubs may be placed into two competitive sides. Cornerposts divide the elements into fours. This diagrammatic icon is composed of the previous two icons. The four posts may be divided into two sides, and each individual cornerpost may be connected to a path. Unlike the first two this diagram has more social implications than those in the natural world. It can be applied to the chiefly houses, so that one post lies with each of the most important houses. The larger/smaller diagrammatic icon is a gradation, a scale measuring such things as ” “worth” (for pieces of money), “social rank” (for persons and houses), “power” (for chiefs), and “sacredness” (for gods and chiefly titles (842)” in the social sphere.
As Parmentier points out it is difficult and pointless to study these diagrams as separate entities once in the ethnographic setting. In Belau all four of the diagrammatic icons examined in this article intermingle. Paths run between chiefly houses that are on opposing sides. These same houses have been ranked into the “larger/smaller” scale, and may be a cornerpost. As time goes by and the village expands the chiefly houses may develop satellite houses that become cornerposts in their own right.
As Belau has faced modernization it has been forced to reduce its use of the diagrammatic icons. The new form of government no longer uses the cornerposts. At various times during colonization by other cultures the people of Belau were forced to reorganize their lives as the colonizers saw fit, but it is undeniable that the symbols found in these diagrams are a part of the Belauan perspective.
Clarity Rating: 3
CHRISTINA BURRIS Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Parementier, Richard J. Diagrammatic Icons and Historical Processes in Belau. American Anthropologist. 1985 Vol. 87: 840-853.
In the article, “Diagrammatic Icons and Historical Processes in Belau,” the author, who is a professor of anthropology and sociology, examines the interrelations between the diagrammatic representations of social relations and historical processes in Belau, Micronesia.
Four diagrams, illustrate the author’s point of view. These diagrams are i) linear paths ii) balanced sides iii) quadripartition, and iv) graded series. Each of these diagrams is described according to their “lexical labels, schematic layouts, prototypical embodiments, and semantic fields”( 846). While discussing each diagram, the author provides both the benefits and consequences of each relationship.
Ethnographic and historical examples reveal the differences between the historical vulnerability of social establishments presented in the diagrams. The author refers to the work of Peirces’s typology of signs and demonstrates how his work is meaningful for the structuralist notion of transformation between social relations.
The author concludes by describing how ethnographic analysis of cultural diagrams presents only one aspect of the total understanding of the link between social relations and historical processes. Additionally, interpreting the importance of symbols is a difficult task, one that must incorporate the interpretation of symbols as being both “symbols” and “icons.”
CLARITY RANKING: 2
DIMITRA LAZAROU York University: ( Naomi Adelson)
Rodman, Margaret. Moving Houses: Residential Mobility and the Mobility of Residences in Longana, Vanatu. American Anthropologist March, 1985 Vol. 87(1):56-72.
In this article, Rodman examines the interrelationship between household composition, kinship, land ownership, and the construction/renovation of the physical structures of residence. Rodman’s goal is to show that residence of both people and physical house structures is extremely mobile in Longana, as a result of, and expression of the residential units and their kinship relationships and different land holdings of various members of the household. Rodman examines the social dynamics of residence within a particular community in Vanatu (New Hebrides).
Rodman uses data from several different field trips to the same location (the hamlet of Waileni) to chart the mobility of residences over time, as well as the flux of the composition of those residences. She describes detailed examples of how individual family heads chose to move residence, and how through marriage and the birth and maturation of children, and the aging of parents continuous changes occur in composition of the household, and often, as a result, the location of residences within a hamlet.
Rodman asserts that the mobility of residence is in part determined by ownership of land, inheritance of land, and the fact that family units tend to own several scattered pieces of land as a result of the way in which land ownership moves between generations. Rodman also tells us that the composition of the family unit, children growing up and marrying, and grandparents aging, are important factors driving mobility. The bilateral kinship structure creates a situation in which women inherit land primarily. Although men in the line of descent have a claim to it, they must compensate the women in exchange for their parcel. As the composition of the family changes through time, the social ties change as well as the location of parcels of land held by both men and women included in the residential unit. Rodman asserts that the movements are opportunistic, rather than necessary. She states that the environment and hamlet structures permit constant mobility, and as a result of the various incentives of convenience, as well as social relationships, people move periodically.
Rodman concludes that the quantity and continuousness of residential movement are important parts of Longana culture, identity and expression of history. According to Rodman, in Longana, the discontinuity of residence, rebuilding and shifting of homes reflect the growth of new generations and the passage of old ones. It establishes ties to the land and place through marriage and descent and is seen as a part of a natural process of permanence and impermanence, which defines the order of the world around them.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
GWENDOLYN KELLY Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Rodman, Margaret C. Moving Houses: Residential Mobility and the Mobility of Residences in Longana, Vanuatu. American Anthropologist 1985 Vol.87 (17): 56-72.
In this article, Rodman examines the series of changes and events of residence over a 12-year period in Longana. Rodman was interested in place and social space, awareness of the nature of construction, and in understanding relationship between locality and shared substance in the form of domestic groups. There is an outline of previous residential patterns based on kinship, detailing how those patterns changed when Christianity was introduced.
Rodman realized on her second field research excursion to Waileni that not only did the people move around Longana, the houses did also. She first did research in this area in 1978-79, and again in 1982. The site of Waileni is shown in comparison from both of her studies. The research was completed through censuses, household surveys, interviews, and maps. After giving the components of her research in Waileni, she leaves the site to further explore the district of Longana as a whole.
Residential mobility is frequent in Longana and is due to the nature of house construction and social factors. The houses are often made of impermanent local materials and the changing of residences is often a domestic factor. It is explained quite simply, when people have more children, they need a larger dwelling, and when the number of people in the house decreases, the remaining members can move to a smaller house. The houses themselves also display the symbolism of kinship and the relationship between the people and the land.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
PATRICIA A. FALCONI York University (Naomi Adelson)
Storey, Rebecca. An Estimate of Mortality in a Pre-Columbian Urban Population. American Anthropologist September, 1985 Vol.87(3):519-535.
Rebecca Storey’s article analyses the skeletal remains from the Tlajinga 33 apartment compound of Teotihuacan in order to examine if urban mortality rates were similar in the New World to those established for pre-industrial cities in the Old World. Teotihuacan is ideal for this study because in size, population density, complexity it was similar to European cities. However, most evidence suggests that Mesoamerica lacked the epidemic diseases that caused many of deaths in Old World pre-industrial cities, prior to contact with Europeans. Storey compares the data from Tlajinga to previous studies of Rome and London to determine if the mortality follows the model established for pre-industrial urban centers in Europe.
Before the Industrial Revolution brought about advances in medicine and public health, European cities suffered from high mortality, especially among children. In many cases deaths appear to have outnumbered births, and the cities only survived due to continuous migration. The dense populations allowed diseases to flourish, as did the poor sanitation and hygiene. Also, city dwellers were often dependant on outside food sources that could fall through during bad seasons and lead to malnutrition. Evidence from imperial era Rome gathered from epitaphs shows how much lower life expectancies were in the cities than in the provinces. In London, parish records show low life expectancy, especially for juveniles.
Most evidence shows no strong epidemic patterns in the New World, even at relatively high population densities. Earlier studies of Teotihuacan concluded relatively good health due to lack of mass interments and the existence of a sewer system, but none carried out a detailed demographic analysis. The Tlajinga 33 apartment compound is well suited to paleodemographic study due to many burials of related individuals in a short period of time. Storey uses standard macroscopic techniques to age and sex the skeletons, and uses the data derived from those skeletons to estimate age and sex for fragmentary remains, and includes human remains from general proveniences, not only graves. The sex and age breakdown suggests that Tlajinga 33 is a representative sample, and the life table method of analysis was deemed suitable the analysis. Although statistical tests do not prove demographic significance, there were distinct differences between survivorship in Early and Late Period populations. Juvenile mortality was very high in the Late Period, and overall life expectancy was low, in keeping with the growing population during this time.
The results show that Tlajinga 33 during the Late Period had similar juvenile mortality to Rome and London. This suggests that in spite of the lower disease load, New World urban centers suffered from many of the same problems as New World pre-industrial cities. Population density, poor sanitation, and food shortages most likely had the same adverse effects on Teotihuacan, especially since the sewer could not have run during the dry season. During the Late Period the city probably had to supplement its numbers with rural migration. Overall, there is evidence to suggest that urbanization had similar effects, regardless of location and specific diseases.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
SARAH MULLEN Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Storey, Rebecca. An Estimate of Mortality in a Pre-Colombian Urban Population. American Anthropologist 1985 Vol. 87:519-535
This article, written by Rebecca Storey, attempts to delineate certain aspects of mortality and infant-death rates in pre-Colombian urban populations. The paper centers on an excavation of an apartment compound (called Tlajinga 33), in the city of Teotihuacan, which yielded a representative skeletal sample for the first “paleo-demographic” study of a New World pre-Colombian urban population. Although archeologists in both Mayan and Mexican areas have recovered skeletal series, studies using paleo-demographic methods in order to accurately examine a population’s mortality pattern had been less than satisfactory.
Teotihuacan, which is located in the northeastern Valley of Mexico near Mexico City, has long been considered one of the most fascinating prehistoric sites in the world. This is due to its impressive size, density of population, as well as the complexity of urban organization. The city covered 21 km² (150 B.C.-750 A.D.), and had a population of at least 125 000. These figures would have made it the sixth largest city in the world in 622 A.D. Part of Mesoamerica, Teotihuacan was known for its dense population, as well as a lack of epidemic diseases (compared to other pre-industrial cities of the Old World). This study would compare the demographic characteristics of Teotihuacan with those of other Old World pre-industrial cities.
The study revealed that the Teotihuacan population had an extremely high juvenile mortality rate, as well as a relatively short life span. Compared with other populations, the study also concluded that the mortality rates of Teotihuacan were very similar to those of other Old World pre-industrial cities, but different to other non-urban North American populations. Evidence also suggests that Teotihuacan most likely reached its maximum population size relatively early in its history, and then remained somewhat stable until its end. The increasing mortality rate over the years at Tlajinga also suggests that health conditions were diminishing in the urban centers, therefore more deaths occurred (compared to births) by the Late Period.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
ARTHUR HAGOPIAN York University (Naomi Adelson)
Thompson, Stephen I. Joseph Bartholomew Casagrande. American Anthropologist December, 1985 Vol. 87(4):883-887.
Joseph Bartholomew Casagrande was a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and the director of its Center of International Studies when he died of a stroke in Las Vegas in 1982. Thompson tells us that at the age of sixty-seven Casagrande was a thousand dollars ahead at a blackjack table, when he left this world as he lived it: a winner.
A Phi Beta Kappa student at the University of Wisconsin, he entered the discipline when it “mesmerized” him in an introductory class with Ralph Linton, whom he followed to Columbia for graduate school. His first field experience was with the Comanches of Oklahoma, which culminated in his Ph.D. dissertation, “Comanche Linguistic Acculturation: A Study in Ethnolinguistics.” He then moved on to study the LacCourt Oreilles Ojibwa of Wisconsin. His fieldwork was shortened when he was drafted in 1942. After that Joe’s path was not as smooth. Unable to stay in school after the war, he did odd jobs until he became a teaching assistant to his old classmate, Charles Wagley. It was through Wagley that Casagrande’s talents began to be recognized, which led to a ten-year job with the Social Science Research Council.
In 1960 he accepted the position of head of the University of Illinois’s new anthropology department, taking it from a meager beginning to one of the highest ranked departments in the 1970s. During this time Casagrande’s research was primarily based in Ecuador. Best known for his work on language and culture, he was not the most influential or prolific anthropologist. Instead, It was in the classroom and out in the field where he excelled, teaching students how to be anthropologists and good human beings.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
JULIA E. MACKESSON Oberlin College (Jack Glazier)
Thomson, Stephen I. Joseph Bartholomew Casagrande: Obituary. American Anthropologist 1985 Vol.87:883-888.
Joseph Bartholomew Casagrande was a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the director of its Center for International Comparative Studies. He died in 1982 in Las Vegas from a stroke while playing cards at a blackjack table.
He was born in Ohio, Feb. 14, 1915, and was an only child. His parents divorced and he moved with his mother to Wisconsin. He entered the English department at the University of Wisconsin, but fell into anthropology after taking an introductory course with Ralph Linton. He did his graduate work at Columbia. His first fieldwork, in 1940, was with the Comanches of Oklahoma. His career was interrupted by World War II, where he served in the African and Italian campaigns. He met his wife Mary Devaney, a captain in the British army, during a military posting in London. They married at the end of the war and eventually had four children.
He gained teaching experience at Queens College in New York, and at the University of Rochester. In the spring of 1950, Casagrande was hired on the spot to be an administrator for the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), where he stayed for the next 10 years. During his years at SSRC, his major research was for the Southwest Project in Comparative Psycholinguistics, where he organized and co-ordinated research amongst 17 different social scientists.
Although Casagrande was exceptional as an administrator, his passion was for fieldwork. His colleagues described him as a “wonderful observer and listener”; his approach to informants was gentle and respectful. Ultimately, he edited a book, In the Company of Man where he described fieldwork as “a challenging scientific undertaking, an adventure of both the mind and the spirit… a memorable human experience.”
After his work for the SSRC, he accepted a position at the University of Illinois to head the newly-formed anthropology department. From 1962 until his death, Casagrande’s major research was in Ecuador. His articles on Ecuadorian Indians were influential and published in several languages. Casagrande was deeply interested in language; he was not only an anthropologist, but also a linguist. He saw language in a broader context — language was key to understanding human beings, their minds, their intellectual traditions, and how they related to the world. Joseph Casagrande died at the age of 67.
CLARITY: 5
MARY CHUNG York University (Naomi Adelson)